Re: Automatic Date Insert (Word 2003)

Welcome to Woody's Lounge!

If you want the document always to display the current date, you can insert a Date field in the document:
- Select Insert | Date and Time...
- Choose your preferred display format.
- Make sure that the check box "Update automatically" is ticked.
- Click OK.

If you want the date that the document was created, or the date that the document was last saved, proceed as follows:
- Select Insert | Field...
- Choose CreateDate for the date the document was created, or SaveDate for the date the document was last saved, or PrintDate for the date the document was last printed.
- Choose your preferred display format.
- Click OK.

Re: Automatic Date Insert (Word 2003)

Re: Automatic Date Insert (Word 2003)

Hans,
I have a word processing group that has created hundreds and hundreds of documents using the instruction you provided to always display the current date. The issue is that when the document is re-opened at a later date, the date updates to the current system date erasing the date that was actually on the stored document file. Is there a way to open a Word file that will not automatically update the date field in the document?

This is probably an easy question [and maybe the answer is that the date field cannot be stopped from updating], but I can't seem to find an answer. All of the keys I have tried holding down [ctl, shift, alt, etc.] when opening the document have had no impact--the date is still updated to today's date. THANKS.

Re: Automatic Date Insert (Word 2003)

Normally, a field is updated when
- You select it and press F9.
- You print or print preview the document (depending on the "Update fields" setting in the Print tab of Tools | Options...)
- You open the document (this applies to some fields, not all).

However, if you select a field and press Ctrl+F11, you lock it, so that none of the above update it. You can unlock it again by selecting it and pressing Ctrl+Shift+F11.
You don't see anything special when you press Ctrl+F11.

Re: Automatic Date Insert (Word 2003)

Hans,
I have done a little more research. The field being used is (Time @"MMM d yyyy" and when this field was created, the update automatically box was checked & it is formated to show the month, date and year. Again, this field updates to the current date as soon as the MS Word file is openned. I was hoping that holding down some sort of key combination when openning the Word file would prohibit this field from updating.

As part of this learning process, I am trying to "fix" this problem going forward in the templates. Is there a custom date field that I can create so that one can manually types in the date? This field would NOT be automatically updated...it would truly be a "manually" entered field. I would then list this custom date field in the header of the other pages so that the date on all pages of the document are the same. Is it possible to create a custom, manually updated only, date field in word [version xp] that can be referenced in the header of the other pages? Thanks.